Febrile Neutropenia: A Review

Febrile Neutropenia is an oral temperature of >38.3°C or two consecutive readings of 38.0°C and an absolute neutrophil count of <500/mm3. Bone marrow suppression is the most common dose-limiting toxicity of traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy agents and has also been observed with targeted and immunological therapies. The majority of infections are bacterial, but viral or fungal etiology is possible. Common bacterial pathogens include gram-positive bacteria infections such as Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Enterococcus species. Drug-resistant organisms including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter species, Stenotrophomonasmaltophilia, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella species, have also been identified as infectious agents. Drug-induced neutropenia has an incidence of one case per million persons per year. About 50% of patients with febrile neutropenia will develop an infection, of which 20% with profound neutropenia will observe bacteremia. The MASCC was created to assess the risk of serious complications in patients with neutropenic fever. The MAASC index has a maximum score of 26. Patients with a score greater than 21 are considered low risk, and less than 21 are high risk. The main cause of febrile neutropenia is bone marrow suppression occurred due to different types of cancer treatments. The main objective of the study is to suggest measures to treat febrile neutropenia timely to increase the outcome of patient survival.